Posted by Heba El-Sayed
Monday, March 20, 2023 05:00 AM
is cancelled space missions For many reasons, from engineering problems to budget issues, but the ExoMars mission, the joint plan between Europe and Russia to send a Mars rover, ran into a complex political problem when Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
The European Space Agency (ESA) was working with Russia’s space agency Roscomos on the mission, but that partnership was quickly put on hold due to what the ESA described as “the human toll and tragic consequences of aggression once morest Ukraine”.
Without Roscosmos, the Rosalind Franklin rover was left without a launcher and it was unclear whether the rover would ever be able to launch, Digitartlends reported.
But not wanting to abandon the project, the European Space Agency decided it would build its own lander and hope to deliver the probe to Mars by 2030.
This week, the European Space Agency shared more information regarding the mission’s plans and how it continues to test the rover.
While the European Space Agency estimates that building a new lander will take at least three to four years, the rover itself has been on the cusp of a long time coming.
It was originally slated for release in 2020 but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, then it was released in 2022 which was delayed due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Engineers are now continuing to test the rover with its twin, Amalia, having recently put it through a drilling test in a simulated Mars environment.
The rover will drill nearly 6 feet into the Martian surface, which is 25 times deeper than previous Mars missions, to search for subsurface features such as water ice.
Recent tests used layers of fine silica, sand and volcanic soil to simulate Martian soil and test whether the drill might be used to collect samples.
The twin craft was able to take a sample, use its camera to take close-up photos of the sample, and crush the sample into a powder for scientific analysis.
This test shows that the rover itself appears to be in good shape, but the full process of designing and building the rover for the rover still needs to be processed.
ESA staff talk regarding the decision to put the mission on hold and how they are adjusting to the new plan. “The war in Ukraine has had a massive impact on our work,” said Pietro Baglione, ExoMars Rover director. “We were ready to go on an ExoMars launch campaign, and suddenly we paused and reconsidered our plans.”
“For the team it was very difficult to digest this decision because they had worked so hard in the past years,” Baglioni continued. “It was really difficult also from a human perspective, but of course they understand the political ramifications so they were able to reset it.”
